A look inside the Typing Room

With copper coloured hair and fox like features, Lee Westcott is the mirror image of his mentor, Tom Aikens. Under his wing for four years, Hertfordshire-born Westcott worked his way up to become head chef for the final two at Aikens’ eponymous Chelsea flagship, where he helped the restaurant regain its Michelin star.

Lee Westcott’s Typing Room opens this week

“Tom is an intense chef to work for and it was tough at first – you really have to earn your stripes with him,” Westcott reveals. The energetic 27-year-old has just been given his big break, having been made executive chef of the restaurant replacing Viajante at the Town Hall Hotel in Bethnal Green.

In February, Portuguese-born chef Nuno Mendes upped sticks from his Michelin-starred mothership to join hip hotelier André Balazs at his white hot new opening Chiltern Firehouse in Marylebone. Opening in April 2010, Viajante, meaning traveller in Portuguese, brought a much-needed dose of glamour to East London, with softly spoken, raven haired El Bulli alumnus Mendes taking diners down the rabbit hole with his playful and intricate dishes that make much of colour, texture and temperature interplay. His sudden departure has left Westcott with big shoes to fill and hungry mouths to feed.

Having completed stints at Per Se in New York and Noma in Copenhagen, and learnt all he could at Tom Aikens, last year, a restless Westcott set off for South East Asia on a voyage of discovery, eating his way around the region and sucking up the experience. Back in London, he received a phone call out of the blue from Jason Atherton asking if he’d like to work at his Hong Kong tapas bar, 22 Ships. Jobless and yearning for new horizons, Westcott accepted and made Hong Kong his home.

Mackerel, passion fruit, burnt cucumber and dill

Serving envelope pushing dishes like crispy fish skin with smoked cod and his signature Spanish Breakfast that pairs a slow cooked hen egg with chorizo and potatoes, while out in Hong Kong, Westcott was tasked with opening a second tapas bar, Ham & Sherry, on the same street in the city’s gritty Wan Chai district.

Having just adjusted to the frenetic pace of life in the city’s beating heart, Atherton phoned again, only this time asking him back to the Big Smoke.

Having snapped up the former Viajante site at the Town Hall Hotel owned by Singaporean hotelier Loh Lik Peng, Atherton had been suitably impressed by Westcott’s work in Hong Kong to entrust him with a dining room of his own, appointing him executive chef of the Typing Room, which opens at the hotel this month. “We got a Bib Gourmand during my time at 22 Ships, so it was great to leave on a high. I found the culture shock quite dramatic, so am happy to be back in London,” Westcott admits.

But while he may be on more familiar ground, the pressure of filling Nuno Mendes’ shoes must be immense? “I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t nervous, but you have to push yourself and you never know until you try. Yes, I’m young, but I’m confident that I’m going to do a good job. This is my baby and Jason has given control – it’s a platform for me to show what I’m capable of, which is incredibly exciting,” he enthuses. The Typing Room name was chosen to reflect the history of the building, which once hummed with the hammering of keys.

Strawberry, goat’s cheese, oats and sorrel

“We wanted the interior to reflect the name too, so it’s classic, warm and inviting – the last thing we wanted to be was pretentious,” says Westcott. As for the inevitable Mendes comparisons, Westcott is adamant to plough his own furrow. “If I’d set out to create a carbon copy of Viajante then I would have failed instantly. What Nuno did was great but he was super experimental, which isn’t my style.

I don’t want people to have to think too hard about my food ­– I want it to be comforting. It will still be technical, but it won’t be mind boggling,” he says. While the Typing Room will keep the open kitchen Viajante was famous for, with chefs doubling as waiters and serving the food, an important departure from the Nuno model will be an à la carte option rather than relying on tasting menus.

The Typing Room will offer a six-course tasting menu for lunch and an eight-course menu for dinner. As for the food, it will pay close attention to the changing seasons with ingredients sourced primarily from the UK.At the more casual Corner Room upstairs, the menu will change every three weeks depending on what’s in season with the option of two courses for £19 and three for £23. “Being affordable is really important as there’s so much choice in London, people will go elsewhere if you’re overpriced.

Yeasted cauliflower, raisins, capers and mint

East London is a funny one. We’re far from the madding crowd here, so are relying on people making the detour to come and see us,” Westcott admits. Seasonally focused signature dishes include a pork skin and tomato granita with garlic mayo; and a strawberry, goat’s cheese, oats and sorrel dessert.

“The Corner Room won’t be veering wildly from its current incarnation. It’s all about simple food cooked brilliantly,” says Westcott.

In terms of style, Westcott believes he falls somewhere between Atherton’s precise perfectionism and Aikens’ more fluid, freestyle approach: “Tom has been a huge influence on me – he taught me to treat dishes like works of art. You win someone over with their eyes so how food looks on the plate is incredibly important,” he says.

So what kind of dishes can we expect at the Typing Room? One of Westcott’s more daring debuts will be cold smoked mackerel, passion fruit and burnt cucumbers, while more tame creations like lamb with smoked aubergine, wild garlic and yoghurt will also be on offer. As for Atherton, Westcott is full of praise for his new mentor:

“Jason has a knack for helping you achieve what you’re striving for, he’s very supportive,” he gushes. At the crest of an exciting new wave of fiercely talented young chefs rising up through the ranks, alongside the likes of Olly Dabbous and Tom Sellers, while Westcott is under pressure to perform, he hopes his calm and collected demeanour will serve him well. “You get more out of people when they want to work for you. I don’t like chefs that shout at their staff – you wouldn’t get away with that in an office so why do it in a kitchen?” he questions.